Improvement in filters for drugs



C. E. GATES.

FILTER FOR. DRUGS, &c.

No.175,066. Patented March 21,1876.

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-be made of any suitable material.

UNITED STATEs PATENT EEcEq CARROLL E. GATES, OF SARA'IOGA SPRINGS, NEW4- YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN FILTERS FCR DRUGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 175,066, dated March 21, 1876 application led February l2, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, U. E. GATES, of Saratoga Springs, in the county of Saratoga and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Displacement Apparatus, otherwise called Percolators,7 of which the following is a specification:

The object of this invention is to facilitate the making of tinctures, Sto., by pharmacists; and it consists in an apparatus to be hereinafter described, whereby the work of displacement, percolation, or filtration, may be continuously carried on without requiring the constant attention of a skilled pharmacist.

The apparatus in common use requires not only the highest skill of the apothecary, but also unremitting attention, to see that the menstruum is supplied as fast as the work of leeching goes on properly, and no faster, for iu that case the alcohol does not take up the medicinal properties of the drug.

In the annexed drawing, .making part of this specification, Figure l is a vertical section of the apparatus. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the automatic feeder, and Fig. 3 is a similar View of the filter and supportinggrating.

The same letters are employed in all the figures in the indication of identical parts.

The apparatus is supported by the brackets AA, over the laboratory-table. The menstruum-chamber B is an inverted bottle, tting, with a joint not quite air-tight, into the upper mouth of the percolator B. These parts may 1 should prefer to make a large apparatus of metal, While small ones will be more convenient if made of glass. The india-rubber stopper C closes the mouth of chamber B. .Through it pass two solid metal or glass `tubes, one extending to the top of the chamber at D, tpr the purpose of admitting air to the chamber above the menstruum. The other pipe, E, extends only through the cork, to draw ott' the liquid. Both project a little below the stopper, far enough to permit the flexible tubes F and Gto be attachedthe one conducting the uid into the percolator, the other conducting air, which is supplied through the joint between the parts B and B', to the air-chamber above the menstruum in chamber B. H is a perforated plate, which rests on top of the drug, represented at I, and supports the up- .per table H', through which the pipes F and G, attached to short tubes thereon open. The drug to be treated rests upon the reticulated screen K, which is placed in the bottom ot' chamber B, as shown. 'Ihe chamber terminates with a neck like a bottle, into which is fitted the elastic-faced stopper L, having through it a tubular duct controlled by the stop-cock M. This duct opens into a chamber,`N, which contains a filter, O, resting on a grating, P, placed in the topof a funnel, Q, which discharges into the dispensing-bottle R.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: The chamber B should be nearly filled with the menstruum, but not sufficiently to cover the upper end of pipe D. A suflicient quantity of the druglto be treated is then put loosely into the bottom ot' chamber B', as indicated at I, and covered with the menstruum. When the plate H is let down into the drug the Iiuid in chamber B will flow into B until it is filled to the upper table H', when the mouth ot' pipe G D, becoming closed, no air can enter the chamber B, and consequently the flow will be stopped. The stop-cock M is then opened so far as will permit the alcohol to flow through the drug with suiicicnt velocity to give the required strength to the tincture, and as the duid in the bottom of' chamber B falls below the end of pipeG, air will be admitted through the pipe D to charnber B, and sufficient of the -fluid will i'low through the pipe F again to raise the level and seal the air-pipe.

In this manner a supply of the menstruum will be constantly furnished, just suflicient to compensate for the waste of the tincture through the cock M.

For filtering tinctures, a paper lter, as shown at O, will generally be sucent. Where oils, &c., are to be filtered, the chamber may be filled with charcoal, magnesia, or other suitable material.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is-

1. In combination with the chambers B and B', the exible pipes F and G, and table H H', whereby the mouths of the pipe may be fixed in a certain relation to the drug under 4. The combination, in continuous series, of' the menstrunln chamber, the percolating. chamber, and the filtering-chamber, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this spccitcatiou in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

C. E. GATES.

Witnesses:

S. H. RICHARDS, F. C. PHILLIPS. 

